Jim Lites has a passion for the Dallas Stars. When the Stars moved to Texas in 1993, Lites became their first president. He had to build an entire marketing and sales staff, and he was part of a group that had one of the most successful runs in recent NHL history. The Stars became a great team on the ice and rose as high as fifth in Forbes’ rankings of the most valuable NHL teams.

He left the team in 2007 when he and owner Tom Hicks had a disagreement over the firing of GM Doug Armstrong and has been dabbling in other ventures.

When Tom Gaglardi was named the new owner of the Stars, his first move was to make Lites the president and CEO. Lites sat down to answer a few questions.

Q: What’s the first step for you?

A: “Well, there’s a lot to do, and you can’t try to do too much too quick. The first step is we have put some very good people in place and we’ll all move together and make a hard push to get people into the building . The good thing is I have had some experience in situations like this.

“When I started in Detroit [in 1982], we were among the worst teams in the league and we had a difficult sell in a tough marketplace. When we came here [in 1993], every customer was a new customer, so we have been through situations that are similar to this, and we’ll learn from those.

“You have to figure out why people aren’t buying tickets, and we have to have patience.”

Q: How do you see the hockey operations side, and how do you think Tom Gaglardi will see the hockey operations side?

A: “I have talked to a lot of hockey people, and they think Joe Nieuwendyk is one of the brightest young general managers in the league. You watched him play, you watch him now, and he understands the game, the players, the coaches, at a level that very few people understand.

“Honestly, he is one of the best things we have going for the organization right now. If you look at the moves he’s made and the team he has, it’s a team where the best players are young and getting better, and where the veterans are at an age where they can help, yet they are on short-term contracts. This team is set up perfectly going forward, and that’s all because of Joe.”

Q: What kind of guy is Tom Gaglardi?

A: “He’s a guy who has grown up in a great family and who has opportunities because of that, but he’s also a guy who has a strong work ethic and has always worked hard to move up the ladder. He reminds me so much of [Detroit Red Wings owner and Little Caesar’s Pizza magnate] Mike Illitch when I first met him, in that he has had incredible business success in a business that serves the customer, and he knows how to bring that experience to a sports team with an eye toward serving the customer.

“And then you add to it his passion is hockey, and you really see an opportunity for him to be a great, great owner. He already has worked in hockey in Kamloops [as majority owner of the WHL Blazers], so he has an understanding and an appreciation for players, for training, for coaching, for scouting, for player development. These are all things that he knows are important to a great organization.”

Q: What’s your emotional relationship to this team?

A: “I worked for a while in New Jersey with the Giants, and they had a hockey bar there in East Rutherford, and I would go in there all of the time and make them turn on the Stars game. I was never not connected with this team.

“I will tell you that when I watch games now, I’m haunted by the empty seats. It really bothers me, and it bothered me even before I ever talked to Tom Gaglardi about this job.

“I know it sounds strange to say this, but this is ‘my team,’ I’ve always felt that way.”

Q: How do you look at spending and payroll?

A: “Well, I don’t think we’ll start spending wildly, but this gives us a chance to get in on some talks and consider some changes. Tom is very well-versed on the talent of the league and on contracts, and I think we will study situations as a group and move forward when the opportunity presents itself.

“We don’t want to say, ‘Here’s money; let’s go spend it.’ I think that hurts you in the long run. But, if a situation comes up that fits and costs money, I definitely think we are open to that.”

Q: What have you learned from past mistakes in this job?

A: “I think the biggest mistake is we got caught up in spending with teams like Detroit, and we decided to put the weight of that on the backs of the fans.

“When we won the Stanley Cup, I think our payroll was somewhere around $48 million, but Detroit and Philadelphia and New York were spending more, and I think that eventually some teams went to $70 million before the lockout. So, we tried to keep up. We had the new building, we had fans waiting to buy tickets, and I think we just took advantage of that and raised the prices way too high, and I think we lost a lot of fans because of that.

“Now, I think we’re in a different financial environment with a different collective bargaining agreement, and that should help us. … This team is in a very good situation right now with the right kind of contracts and a good young base, and what we have to do is spend responsibly.

“The other thing is we have to make ourselves attractive in a very competitive marketplace with very good sports teams, so we will re-price the building and we will make good tickets available, and we’ll do that for two years, and that’s the first step.”

Q: But, you also have to have a winning team if you want to sell hockey in Texas, right?

A: “No doubt, absolutely true, and that is the first goal of everyone here, especially Tom. We need to be competitive. We need to start every year believing that we are one of the teams that has a serious chance of winning the Stanley Cup. That’s what drove us the first time.”

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